15 big wins for Write for Rights

It started in Poland with a young man trying to impress a young woman. He met her at a festival and she told him about 24-hour events she’d been to in Africa, where people wrote letters of protest to governments. Inspired by her story – and wanting to see her again – he invited her to his local Amnesty group where they decided to do the same thing.

The idea caught on and within a year, Write for Rights grew into a global letter-writing phenomenon. That was 2002. Today, Write for Rights is the world’s biggest human rights event, and with good cause. Over the years, the campaign has helped free at least 48 people from wrongful imprisonment. That’s 48 lives renewed and transformed – thanks to millions of actions by people like you in almost every part of the world.

4. Chelsea Manning, USA

US whistle-blower Chelsea Manning walked free in May 2017, after her 35-year prison sentence was cut short by outgoing President Barack Obama. In 2015 more than a quarter of a million people wrote for her release. She said: “I wish I had the time and ability to thank each one of you for giving me a little bit of joy with each letter and card.”

Journalist Muhammad Bekzhanov was released in February 2017 after spending 17 years in prison. One of the world’s longest held journalists, he was supported by thousands around the world as part of Write for Rights 2015 and our Stop Torture campaign.

15. Yecenia Armenta, Mexico

Yecenia Armenta was freed from prison in June 2016. Detained on 10 July 2012, she was beaten, near-asphyxiated and raped during 15 hours of torture until she was forced to “confess” to being involved in her husband’s murder. Amnesty supporters took some 300,000 actions for her as part of our Stop Torture and Write for Rights campaigns. “When I receive all these letters saying that I’m not alone,” she said, “it makes me feel great. And I think: ‘Yes, it’s true, I’m not alone.”